Kishon, Ephraim "The Seasick Whale: An Israeli Abroad. Book of Travels" (Hebrew: ספר המסעות/Sefer ha'masot) - 1995
Ephraim Kishon is always worth picking up. In this volume, he recounts his travels to various European countries and the United States. Like few others, he manages to portray the quirks of the locals in such a way that even they have to laugh at them. And, in reality, his observations actually serve as a form of praise.
So, for anyone who wants to know how to get rid of a banana peel in Switzerland, why one should never take a gondola in Venice, and why it is advisable not to visit Las Vegas without having already booked and paid for the return journey, this book is worth its weight in gold.
Book Description:
"Every person dreams of travel in the world; Anyone going crazy to see the Niagara Falls outdated and disappointed them, or to flock to the picture of the Mona Lisa and find out the size of A4. The average Israeli is not a dream and we do not go crazy. He drives - especially in summer and winter, or the two seasons, going at all costs and at every opportunity. Citizen look in the mirror and say to 'I'm starting to resemble my passport photo, so it was time to go.'
Ephraim Kishon's journeys proves his wonderful humor is independent of geography, is entertaining and hilarious in each country to which he invites the reader."
Faulks, Sebastian "Jeeves and the Wedding Bells: An Homage to P.G. Wodehouse" - 2013
I love Jeeves and Wooster. And I have read quite a few books by the original author, P.G. Wodehouse. And watched the TV series with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. I rarely laugh as much as when hearing the tales of the two.
When I saw that there was a "new" novel by author Sebastian Faulks (of whom I read and enjoyed "Birdsong. A Novel of Love and War", I was curious. Usually, I am not a huge fan of novels written by another author as the original one but I knew that this one was a very renowned author in his own right, so I gave it a try.
And I was not disappointed. What a lovely and funny story. Wooster is as clumsy as always, Jeeves the gentleman who has a solution to any predicament.
If you are a fan, have a look at this edition. Please, write more, Mr. Faulks
From the back cover:
"Bertie Wooster is staying at the stately home of Sir Henry Hackwood in Dorset. He is more than familiar with the country-house set-up: he is a veteran of the cocktail hour and, thanks to Jeeves, his gentleman’s personal gentleman, is never less than immaculately dressed.
On this occasion, however, it is Jeeves who is to be seen in the drawing room while Bertie finds himself below stairs – which he doesn’t care for at all.
His predicament is, of course, all in the name of love …"
Since the other one is older, I read that one first. There, I wrote:
"This is another one that I probably would never have picked up, it looks too un-adult to me. But: It is a brilliant book."
And I can say the same for this one. After a slow start where I thought this is not going to be the same, I really got into it after a couple of chapters. Oz is a boy, as much as you can imagine any boy, he is very typical. (I can judge, I have three younger brothers and two sons.) He steps from one Fettnäpfchen (no English word like that available but it means gaffe/social blunder) into the next, nothing seems to go right for him. But he has his heart in the right place and is as loveable as most boys are.
It tells us all about friendship and about the special bond siblings have, even if they seem to fight all the time.
Definitely a great book to read.
From the back cover:
"Things could be going better for Oz. He's just moved miles from all his friends. A prank at his new school puts him in the crosshairs of 'Psycho' Isobel Skinner, a bully who also happens to be his mum's new best friend. And he's driven off the only other kid who will have anything to do with him: a Tolkien-obsessed boy in desperate need of a decent playlist.
With his life careening out of control, Oz sets about making things right. But when he stumbles on his sister's game-changing secret, Oz is left wondering if he can ever get his old life back ... or if he's stuck forever in this craziness.
Comic and heartwarming, Waiting for Gonzo is about discovering when to play the cards you're dealt and when to shuffle the deck and deal your own hand."
Another book lent by a friend. This is another one that I probably would never have picked up, it looks too un-adult to me. But: It is a brilliant book. Heart-wrenching but beautiful. An alcoholic mother is so depressed that she leaves her teenage son and his six year old brother alone. No address, nobody who would look after them, no money, nothing.
I am not sure whether I could like the mother or the little brother. Laurence, the poor guy, first has to take care of an alcoholic mother as well as a little brother who is anything but easy. When the mother disappears, he doesn't want them to end up in different care facilities, so he pretends everything is alright in the family.
As I said, people like the mother make me mad! She has two children but doesn't look after them (already while she's there). No matter what an excuse you have, no matter how depressed you are, you don't leave your children. What if Laurence had been one of those kids who can't take any responsibility, either? Quite believable with a mother like that. Luckily he isn't. I do feel sorry for him and all those kids in similar situations. The mother doesn't deserve them. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.
There were quite a few funny scenes in the book which made it bearable at times. Just as an example, the diary gives the days of the week as follows:
"Fifteen-year-old Laurence Roach just wants a normal life, but it's not easy when your mum is a depressed alcoholic, and your six-year-old brother thinks he's a dog.
When Mum fails to come home one night, Laurence tells nobody, terrified he and his brother will be taken into care if anyone finds out. Instead, he attempts to keep up the pretence that Mum is still around: dressing up in her clothes to trick the neighbours and spinning an increasingly complicated tangle of lies. After two weeks on their own, running out of food and money, and with suspicious adults closing in, Laurence finally discovers what happened to his mother. And that's when the trouble really starts . . .
A compelling thriller filled with some hilarious and surreal moments. Fifteen Days Without a Head is a tender, honest story about family, forgiveness and hope."
The book description starts with Peter Pan and his "irritable fairy friend". That could be said about the whole book. While I read this, I thought, yes, it's another children's book, mainly for boys and I am getting too old for these stories. However, in the German description, they say it was originally written for adults.
Well, not my thing. They also compare it with "Alice in Wonderland". And I have to add that these two were my least favourites as Disney movies. And, if I remember it well, my kids weren't too fond of them, either. The only thing I like about the film is the crocodile. LOL
So, why did I not like this? I'm not much into fantasy and this is fantasy for me. I also don't like it when children are portrayed as the biggest heroes, they know everything better than adults. I didn't like that when I was a child, I don't like it now.
But some of the book club members really liked it, so it was a success in the group. Here are some comments:
"I enjoyed the book because of the language and because it was a light summer read, and am able to turn off my critical brain to just enjoy stories for what they are.
I was delighted that the book really divided the group on many agreeing with Marianne, about the book and about Peter. This made for a really good discussion much beyond what we had thought possible before when we chose the book. It was originally suggested because there had been some controversial studies on Peter Pan as a character, so maybe this shouldn't have been a surprise.
While a few members really enjoyed the novel for its imagination, humour, and writing style, others also found parts of it engaging even if they did not fully connect with the story. Overall opinions were divided. Some members gave it fairly low ratings, with others falling somewhere in the middle. Some struggled with the episodic structure and never felt the novel developed a clear overarching plot, perhaps reflecting the book's origins in stories Barrie improvised for family friends' children. Others simply found the fantasy difficult to engage with and felt that Peter and Tinker Bell were more irritating than endearing.
One of our longest discussions centered on Peter himself. Rather than seeing him as a charming hero, many of us were struck by his darker qualities: his selfishness, emotional immaturity, forgetfulness, and inability to form lasting relationships. This led to a conversation about how some of these traits can also be recognised in people we encounter in real life and even in certain public figures.
Many members were also surprised by how brutal and uncompromising the novel could be, especially considering its reputation as a children's classic. We first explored what Neverland might represent before talking about Captain Hook and the significance of the pirates in the story. We discussed why pirates held such a strong appeal for readers of Barrie's time, ideas of loyalty to the Crown, and how these themes might have been understood when the book was first published.
The portrayal of women and children in the novel came up, especially how much they reflected the values of the time. The parents, especially the father, were seen as exaggerated caricatures, although there was also some discussion about whether this reflects British upper-middle-class attitudes of the time. It was also mentioned that dogs sometimes had a similar 'nanny' role with children in real life, which adds another layer to Nana’s character.
We also talked about Barrie's own life and its influence on the novel. We discussed the death of his older brother when Barrie was six years old, which may have influenced his writing and his ideas about eternal childhood. We also discussed why he wrote Peter Pan in the first place, including whether it was meant as satire aimed at adults. Many of the adventures also originated as stories he improvised for family friends' children, which may help explain why the novel feels so episodic.
Whether members enjoyed the novel or not, there was broad agreement that Peter Pan is far more complex than its reputation suggests. Most of us came into the discussion expecting a fairly straightforward fantasy story, but we ended up discussing far more topics than we had expected, from Peter's personality and Barrie's own life to pirates, symbolism, and the society in which the novel was written.
As we often do in our discussions, we also looked for connections to other books we have read. This time our conversation brought up Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which we have previously read together, as well as Astrid Lindgren's children's books and Treasure Island."
Thanks to Karin, our group leader, for this report.
And another comment:
"What a pleasure to reread Peter Pan, a book which has followed me all my life. It has taken me through the love of adventure in my childhood, the dawning of second wave feminism in my adolescence, the later growing Canadian awareness of racism against indigenous peoples, the enchantment of my own children , and lately, insight into the characters of those who unduly influence so much of the world. It has always been a challenge for me to embrace the cultural contradictions in this well-loved book that grew up with me even if Peter didn't. Now my book is falling apart, but it continues to reveal. This latest reading showed me an appreciation of Barrie's nuanced comments and attitudes. I think he had a much deeper understanding of prejudices and cultural stereotypes than I had realized."
Lately, I have not been very pleased with our online book club reads, I hope this is going to improve soon. I know our group choses different kind of books from other book clubs but that is the attraction of it, I have found a few interesting ones that I would never have come across without this group.
"From the moment when Peter Pan and his irritable fairy friend Tinker Bell fly in through the nursery window, the story casts a magic spell. The Darling children are carried away to the Neverland where they meet the Lost Boys, watch shy mermaids playing in the blue lagoon and encounter Capain Hook and his wicked pirate band...
Peter Pan is one of the most popular of all children’s classics. It blends autobiography, fancy, Oedipal myth and fantasy so satisfyingly that, like Alice in Wonderland, its child’s world appeals and intrigues on many levels."
Grann, David "The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder" - 2023
What an interesting story. Not just because of what happened with this ship in particular but about life on a ship at the time. I have read a few books about voyages on a boat (e.g. Master and Commander) and they are always interesting. This one is about life during a war on a ship, a shipwreck, a mutiny. This is the background to many novels we read from that time where there are sailors, I think especially about stories by Jane Austen whose brothers were sailors and who included seafaring men as well as the clergy (which represented her father and a brother) in most of her books. This book adds to those stories.
So, if you want to know more about the life on those vessels, this is the book for you.
Oh, did I mention that this is based on a true story?
Book Description:
"A page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on the Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire.
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as 'the prize of all the oceans,' it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.
But then . . . six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes - they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death--for whomever the court found guilty could hang.
The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann's recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O'Brian, his portrayal of the castaways' desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann's work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound."
This is the second book by Ian McEwan that I've started. I finished the first one, but I didn't like it at all. I stopped reading this one after a third of the way (150 pages); it was simply too boring, bloated, rambling, and tedious. I just can't find the right word to express how much this book bored me.
It could have been a good book in principle. But the author simply fails to engage the reader. The writing style is incredibly stiff, the whole approach utterly bland and outdated. The protagonist's life isn't just boring; you want to shake him. The eternal victim—what have others always done to me…
And this is supposed to be his masterpiece?
This will definitely be my last book by Ian McEwan. No matter what anyone else tells me, I won't touch another one. There are so many good books and outstanding writers out there.
Book Description:
"When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. 2,000 miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade.
Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life.
From the Suez Crisis to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall to the current pandemic and climate change, Roland sometimes rides with the tide of history, but more often struggles against it. Haunted by lost opportunities, he seeks solace through every possible means - music, literature, friends, sex, politics and, finally, love cut tragically short, then love ultimately redeemed. His journey raises important questions for us all. Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past?
Epic, mesmerising and deeply humane, Lessons is a chronicle for our times - a powerful meditation on history and humanity through the prism of one man's lifetime."
Honeyman, Gail "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" - 2017
Eleanor Oliphant is definitely not fine. Saying that she struggles with social skills as they do in the description is quite an understatement. I am sure she has some sort of mental illness or suffers from an event that happened earlier in her life.
I had some trouble getting into the story or into Eleanor. I am very sociable, I always like to have lots of people around me and can talk to anyone who is only lightly inclined to respond. I am sure Eleanor would not appreciate me. And I don't want to intrude, so I guess I would speak a sentence with her and that would be it. I am sorry about that but that's just it. She doesn't really want to talk to anyone, right?
The story itself was quite interesting, though, how she meets this colleague who helps her getting acquainted with this world, the writing wasn't bad, either. But I couldn't warm to this story.
Two quotes that I completely agree with:
"... the front door of the hospital ... a woman in a wheelchair – she’d brought her drip out with her, on wheels, so that she could destroy her health at the same time as taxpayers’ money was being used to try and restore it."
I always get mad when I see people smoking in front of a hospital, especially just right outside a hospital where everyone has to pass, sick people, visitors ... Hospitals and its surroundings should be a smoke-free zone.
and
"Sport is a mystery to me. In primary school, sports day was the one day of the year when the less academically gifted students could triumph, winning prizes for jumping fastest in a sack, or running from Point A to Point B more quickly than their classmates. How they loved to wear those badges on their blazers the next day! As if a silver in the egg-and-spoon race was some sort of compensation for not understanding how to use an apostrophe."
... or get your times-tables right or do anything that will get you somewhere in this life!
"Our book club had a very positive discussion about the book. Most members rated it highly, and one of the strongest shared reactions was how much our view of Eleanor changed as the novel progressed. She may initially seem rigid, socially awkward, overly formal, or emotionally distant, but by the end we felt genuine warmth toward her, were invested in her future, and sincerely wished her well.
A major part of the conversation focused on Eleanor’s neurodivergent traits and how they were portrayed. Given the nature of our group, this aspect of her character was immediately recognizable rather than speculative. Her literal thinking, reliance on routine, difficulty reading unspoken social norms, and unusual communication style all felt authentic to many readers. What interested us more was how these traits intersected with trauma, loneliness, and years of isolation. The novel was praised for allowing that complexity without reducing her to any single label.
Loneliness was another central theme in the discussion. Many readers felt the book captured a particularly modern kind of isolation: someone who is intelligent, employed, capable, and outwardly functioning, yet profoundly disconnected from other people. Eleanor is not excluded from society in any obvious sense, but instead seems to exist beside it, unable to fully participate. This subtle portrayal of loneliness resonated strongly with the group.
We also talked extensively about trauma, addiction, and coping mechanisms. Eleanor’s drinking was generally seen not as recklessness, but as a form of self-medication and emotional numbing. Her routines, detachment, and narrow life structure felt less like random dysfunction and more like survival strategies that had become fixed over time. Several members noted how realistically the novel shows pain becoming embedded in everyday habits.
Spoiler:
The revelation of the dead mother led to one of the most engaged parts of the conversation. Readers saw this as a powerful representation of how abuse can continue internally long after the abuser is gone. The mother’s voice remains active through criticism, shame, and control, shaping Eleanor’s life even in death. Many felt this was one of the novel’s strongest psychological insights.
* * *
Relationships were another important topic. We appreciated that the story avoids a simplistic romantic rescue arc. Raymond was especially valued because his everyday kindness, patience, and consistency give Eleanor a model of safe human connection. Rather than dramatically 'saving' her, he helps create the conditions in which she can slowly begin to emerge from isolation and reconnect with life. Many readers felt this understated portrayal of friendship was one of the book’s greatest strengths. (I do agree there.)
Language and translation also became a particularly interesting part of the discussion. Some members read the novel in English, some in Finnish, and one in Russian, which allowed for direct comparison. Eleanor’s character is strongly shaped through voice: her formal diction, blunt literalism, unusual phrasing, and emotional reserve. We discussed how each translation inevitably influences how readers perceive her. The portrayal of the mother was especially interesting here, since tone, cruelty, manipulation, and emotional pressure can shift subtly depending on language.
We also discussed the novel’s balance of humour and pain. Eleanor’s voice often creates comedy through precision, bluntness, and social mismatch, yet beneath that humour lies real emotional suffering. Many readers felt the book handled this contrast skilfully, allowing warmth and sadness to coexist without either feeling forced.
Overall, the group agreed that Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is an intelligent, humane, and emotionally perceptive novel. It succeeds not only as a story of trauma and recovery, but as a reminder that people who seem merely difficult, odd, or distant are often carrying far more complexity than others realise. The fact that Eleanor ended as someone we genuinely cared about was, for many of us, the clearest sign of the book’s success."
Book Description:
"Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.
But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.
Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . ."
Godfrey, Jennie "The List of Suspicious Things" - 2024
This book was chosen unanimously by our local German book club for our discussion in March 2026. An interesting story about two girls who want to find a killer. A serial killer. What they mainly do is "investigating" the people around them, i.e. nosing around. Of course, as we can imagine, they cause more evil than good with that.
I might never have picked up this book in the book shop, it looked more like chick lit than anything else. And it being a Sunday Times bestseller doesn't really recommend it to me, either. But, the member who suggested it, had read it and said it was good. And I know she has a great taste.
Besides the story of the "Yorkshire Ripper", there are many different subjects in this book, growing up, first love, mental illness, racism, almost any topic that can come up.
While I quite liked the book overall, I was not too keen on the ending. Maybe the author wanted to get away from something too cozy but it could have been different. It should have been different.
We had a wonderful conversation about this book. So many fates were touched upon.
We also found out that "the cover features a raven to symbolize the themes of curiosity, intelligence, and the menacing atmosphere and the milk bottle represents British school life from the time. The bird is the dark, dangerous intrusion of the outside world, reflecting the fear felt in Yorkshire during the time of the murders." (AI)
From the Back cover:
"Maggie Thatcher is prime minister, drainpipe jeans are in, and Miv is convinced that her dad wants to move their family Down South.
Because of the murders.
Leaving Yorkshire and her best friend Sharon simply isn’t an option. So, Miv and Sharon decide to make a list: a list of all the suspicious people and things down their street. People they know. People they don’t.
But their search for the truth reveals more secrets in their neighbourhood, within their families - and between each other - than they ever thought possible.
What if the real mystery Miv needs to solve is the one that lies much closer to home?"
A Friend told me about this book and lent it to me. She had taught it at school and was sure I would like it. And I did. What a story!
The story of Martha is heartbreaking. She has no freedom, she is kept like a prisoner at home. She cannot make friends. Children at school bully her. Well, that part I could comprehend because I had that same problem at school. My parents didn't have much money and my mother used to sew all my clothes. They were nice clothes but I was always bullied because of it. And I didn't belong to anyone.
But luckily my parents were just ordinary Catholics and they would always complain about people who placed religion over their own family. Because this is what Martha's parents do.
I cannot go into the story without revealing what happened and why the family behaved like that. Only this, Martha does make a friend and he helps her to find to herself.
I am sure this book would have a different effect on children than they have on me but I was pretty shocked.
From the back cover:
"A dark tale of shameful secrets, religious intolerance, and breaking through the emotional chains binding one girl to an abusive home life Martha is 12—and very different from other kids, because of her parents. Strict members of a religious group—the Righteous—their rules dominate Martha's life. And one rule is the most important of she must never ever invite anyone home. If she does, their shameful secret—Abomination—could be revealed. But as Martha makes her first real friend in Scott, a new boy at school, she begins to wonder. Is she doing the right thing by helping to keep Abomination a secret? And just how far will her parents go to prevent the truth from being known?"
I know Gyles Brandreth from TV, mainly from panel shows. And he is always really, really funny. When I saw the title of this book, I just had to get it. I already enjoyed writings like "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss (not to be confused with the "minor royal" or "local dignity" Liz Truss) and this one was just as great.
Just as in his shows, the author is simply hilarious. He can teach us about the English language and make a great joke at the same time.
As a non-native speaker, I am always surprised at mistakes like mixing up their, there and they're. What's the problem? Are people really so dumb or do the just not care. I suppose the latter because 90% of internet users cannot be dyslexic.
If only everyone would read this book, we could pass on a great legacy to our descendants.
And if you ever have someone correct your English, don't call them Grammar Nazis. They want to improve your English, not kill you. Call us nerds, if you like.
From the back cover:
"Don't know if it's, like, okay to say 'like'? Are your apostrophe's in the wrong place? Should it be 'past' or 'passed'? Want to make fewer not less grammatical mistakes?
Then do not despair, Gyles Brandreth's Have You Eaten Grandma? is the definitive (and hilarious) guide to punctuation, spelling, and good English for the twenty-first century.
Sunday Times best-selling author and grammar guru, Gyles pokes fun at the linguistic foibles of our time, tells us where we've been going wrong (and how to put it right), and reveals his tips and tricks to make every one of us better, more confident users (not abusers) of the English language."
Somebody talked to me about this book. Someone who likes Maggie O'Farrell. I have a vague recollection of who it was but I can't find it again. So, maybe it was someone else. Sorry, whoever you are.
Anyway, it was nice to read about a part of Shakespeare's life that is not so well known. We know that his son died young. That his name was Hamnet and that his father wrote a play called Hamlet. As to the book, the spelling of the name is interchangeable, so it is more or less the same. I mean, Shakespeare himself had about 27 varieties of is last name. Or something like that.
The author mentions that this is a piece of fiction based on only the few facts I mentioned above. So, she lets us know her imagination and we can add to that.
But I still learned about Shakespeare and especially his wife, Anne Hathaway, who is called Agnes in the novel. Because I like to search for more information elsewhere whenever I read a book. Sometimes, you need a starter for that.
And what was also excellent is the description of the grief parents go through when losing a child. That was heartbreaking.
We discussed this book in our local book club in April 2026.
A few comments from our book club members:
Shakespeare's life in London wasn't given enough attention.
How is it that such a strong woman suffers so much from the death of her child?
We liked the way the transmission of the plague was described.
From the back cover:
"On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?
Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London.
Neither parent knows that one of the children will not survive the week.
Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright. It is a story of the bond between twins, and of a marriage pushed to the brink by grief. It is also the story of a kestrel and its mistress; flea that boards a ship in Alexandria; and a glovemaker's son who flouts convention in pursuit of the woman he loves. Above all, it is a tender and unforgettable reimagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written."
Deresiewicz, William "A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter" - 2011
I have read quite a few books about Jane Austen as part of the #Reading Austen project this year. And this one will be quite on top of my favourites of the year and of the books I read for the project - besides all of Jane Austen's books, of course.
What I really liked was the author linking his life to all of Jane Austen's books. It starts when he is 26 and reads his first one: Emma and ends with Sense & Sensibility when he finally meets his wife, after having told himself all the time that he would never marry.
He also didn't want to read Jane Austen, thought it would just be something like a chick lit with no content whatsoever. But he had to read the first one for a class and then found that Jane Austen has a lot to tell and to teach us.
How he develops from a conceited, big-headed young student into a decent human being, that is the background to this book. Something we can all learn from.
From the back cover:
"Before Jane Austen, William Deresiewicz was a very different young man. A sullen and arrogant graduate student, he never thought Austen would have anything to offer him. Then he read Emma — and everything changed.
In this unique and lyrical book, Deresiewicz weaves the misadventures of Austen’s characters with his own youthful follies, demonstrating the power of the great novelist’s teachings — and how, for Austen, growing up and making mistakes are one and the same. Honest, erudite, and deeply moving, A Jane Austen Education is the story of one man’s discovery of the world outside himself."
Adkins, Roy & Lesley "Eavesdropping on Jane Austen's England: How our ancestors lived two centuries ago" (aka "Jane Austen's England) - 2013
Part of my #Reading Austen project is to read a book by the author in the uneven months and a book about the author and/or her books in the even ones. This is my October read.
And it was a very interesting and detailed book. We get several maps right at the beginning where we cannot just see where Jane Austen lived during her lifetime but also some other contemporary characters with a similar background. Something that always adds to the explanations in any book, fiction or non-fiction.
But it's not only that. They explain how the pounds, shillings and pennies were divided, how the weights and measurements were calculated, all those nitty-gritty bits that are in the books of that time but not explained because the readers would have known what it was. The same as what it meant when someone had £10,000 pounds a year.
They tell us everything about weddings at the time, about the aristocracy and who was who, education was as much talked about as what was going on in home and kitchen. The fashion of the time (of which we read a lot in Jane's books) is described, the religion, work and hobbies, crimes, illnesses, just everything that was important to the people of the 19th century.
So, if you want to know more about Jane's life, this is the book for you.
From the back cover:
"Jane Austen, arguably the greatest novelist of the English language, lived from 1775 to 1817. Her fiction focuses on the gentry and aristocracy, and her heroines are young women looking for love. Yet the comfortable, tranquil country that she brilliantly devised is a complete contrast to the England in which she actually lived. For twenty-nine of Jane Austen's forty-one years, the country was embroiled in war.
Eavesdropping on Jane Austen's England explores the real England of that time. Roy and Lesley Adkins vividly portray fascinating aspects of the daily lives of ordinary people, from forced marriages and the sale of wives in marketplaces to boys and girls working down mines or as chimney sweeps, this book eavesdrops on the daily chore of fetching water, the horror of ghosts and witches, Saint Monday, bull baiting, sedan chairs, highwaymen, the stench of corpses swinging on roadside gibbets and the horrors of surgery without anaesthetics.
Giving a voice to these forgotten people and revealing how they worked, played and struggled to survive, Eavesdropping on Jane Austen's England is an authoritative and gripping account that is sometimes humorous, often shocking, but always entertaining."
Hammond, Richard "As You Do: Adventures With Evil, Oliver And The Vice President Of Botswana" - 2008
I have always loved Top Gear and especially Richard Hammond, "The Hamster" (see his book On the Edge). The adventures the guys had in their show, they were always hilarious albeit very scary.
Here, Richard Hammond has written about his race to the North Pole with a dog-driven sled against his friends in a car - with a lot of preparation beforehand (Polar Special, also known as the Polar Challenge). And about his trip through Africa in a car that he bought right there and kept later on because he had named it (Ollie) and you cannot sell a car with a name. LOL.
And there are other stories in the book, how he rescued some friends who were stuck in their house in the flood in Gloucestershire. And how he met Eviel Knievel, a guy I never was interested in and am even less after reading about him, even though he was one of the author's heroes.
In any case, this was a very interesting book with lots of funny scenes, almost like watching Top Gear. And it was an easy yet still worthy book to read.
From the back cover:
"The wry, honest and often hilarious chronicles of a very brave and clever TV presenter, Arctic Explorer and general drawer of the Short Straw.
As one third of the BBC's Top Gear team, Richard Hammond's year since his near-fatal accident has been full of stunts and drama. From a race to the North Pole (with skis and dog-sled) to a journey through Botswana in a car named Oliver, and a seventeen-mile run through floods to his Gloucestershire home, in order to get to his daughter's birthday party, the year has been eventful, to say the least . . .
With his boundless optimism in the face of certain failure, Richard Hammond has become one of our funniest writers about a life (and a job) which constantly present a challenge."
Several people recommended William Boyd to me lately. And I had found one of his books in a used book sale. So, I decided to tackle this.
This is a collection of short stories about teenagers, young people, students, boarding school, murderers, all about people completely dissatisfied with their lives.
Short stories have never been my favourite and this book certainly didn't convice me otherwise. Please, if you have read his short stories and his novels and think the novels are so much better, tell me, otherwise this would be the last I have read of his stories.
From the back cover:
"Adolescent sex in a Scottish boys' public school ... Oddballs on the seedy side of America ... Murder in a quiet Devon cottage ... Comical, ironical or lacerating - wit is the keynote of these stories, which include two early adventures from the career of Morgan Leafy, glorious anti-hero of William Boyd's prize-winning novel 'A Good Man in Africa'.
Wiliam Boyd, winner of the Whitbread and Somerset Maugham Awards, introduces unlikely heroes desperate to redeem their unsatisfying lives.
From California poolsides to the battlegrounds of Vietnam, here is a world populated by weary souls who turn to fantasy as their sole escape from life's inequities. Stranded in an African hotel during a coup, an oafish Englishman impresses a young stewardess with stories of an enchanted life completely at odds with his sordid existence in 'The Coup'" In the title story, an arrogant, sadistic American pilot in Vietnam underestimaets the power of revenge when he relentlessly persecutes a member of his maintenance crew. With droll humor and rare compassion, Boyd's enthralling stories remind us of his stature as one of contemporary fiction's finest storytellers."
I read "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" by this author a couple of years ago and really loved it. I always wanted to read something else by her. Now, I came across this book and it's about a female paper from the Baroque period. I had never heard of Artemisia Gentileschi even though I love art. Typical, women are never acknowledged much.
To start, I really like the note by the author. She mentioned that any work of fiction about history or a historical character ist still a work of imagination, not of reality. Based on known evidence, she spins her story. She used actual works of the artist and actual occurrences. I loved that.
Her style or writing is very vivid. Her descriptions are very detailed. We could see how people at the time lived, what were their hopes and fears. How did the church impact their lives?
Through this novel, I got to know a wonderful woman, a keen and gifted painter who struggled with the constrictions of the time but who nonetheless created some beautiful art.
I will look for more books by Susan Vreeland. Let me know if you've read one.
From the back cover:
"From extraordinary highs - patronage by the Medicis, friendship with Galileo and, most importantly of all, beautiful and outstandingly original paintings - to rape by her father's colleague, torture by the Inquisition, life-long struggles for acceptance by the artistic Establishment, and betrayal by the men she loved, Artemisia was a bold and brilliant woman who lived as she wanted, and paid a high price."
Dickens, Charles "Martin Chuzzlewit. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit" - 1843-44
I'm a huge fan of Charles Dickens and am glad I read this novel. But I wouldn't recommend it if you haven't read anything else by him. For me, this was one of his worst novels.
Too many characters, even though he was able to include many interesting names. This also meant that some things got lost, such as the main love story, which is what everything supposedly revolves around. But it's barely portrayed. We hardly see the couple together. Otherwise, too much confusion, chaos, one catastrophe after another.
I read somewhere that this is Dickens' most underrated book. I wouldn't say that; I think it landed exactly where it belongs, somewhere at the very bottom of all his fantastic books.
"Old Martin Chuzzlewit believes that greed is so endemic in his family that he disinherits his grandson and hinders his courtship of Mary Graham. As the intricacies of he plot develop the story passes from sunny comedy to the grimmest depths of criminal psychology. Domestic tyranny is tellingly depicted through the household of Mr Pecksniff and public villainy - leading to blackmail and murder - revealed in the activities of the Anglo-Bengalee Disinterested Loan and Life Assurance Company...
A brilliant satire on selfishness and hypocrisy revolving around a stubborn young protagonist. Martin Chuzzlewit is also one of Dickens's comic masterpieces. Peopled with a cast of characters - including Mrs. Gamp, Poll Sweedlepipe, Montague Tigg and Chevy Slyme - unequalled elsewhere in his novels."
Sullivan, Margaret C. "The Jane Austen Handbook. A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide to Her World" - 2007
Part of my #Reading Austen project is to read a book by the author in the uneven months and a book about the author and/or her books in the even ones. This month, it was a book about her time with a lot of background information to why some characters acted the way they did. There were a lot of lovely illustrations and even more funny allusions to the novels.
I can heartily recommend this little book to any Jane Austen fan. Whether you have read her books or watched them on TV or in the cinemas (hopefully both), you will be delighted by this. And if time travelling was a thing, you could even learn how to behave in Regency times without anyone noticing you're from the future.
From the back cover:
"Jane Austen published her first novel in 1811, but today she's more popular than ever. Film adaptations of her books are nominated for Academy Awards. Chick lit bestsellers are based on her plots. And a new biopic of Austen herself Becoming Jane arrives in theaters this spring.
For all those readers who dream about living in Regency England, The Jane Austen Handbook offers step-by-step instructions for proper comportment in the early nineteenth century. You'll discover:
How to Become an Accomplished Lady How to Run a Great House How to Indicate Interest in a Gentleman Without Seeming Forward How to Throw a Dinner Party How to Choose and Buy Clothing
Full of practical directions for navigating the travails of Regency life, this charming illustrated book also serves as a companion for present-day readers, explaining the English class system, currency, dress, and the nuances of graceful living."
Pierce, Patricia "Jurassic Mary: Mary Anning and the primeval monsters" - 2006
Ever since I read "Remarkable Creatures" by Tracy Chevalier, I've been interested in the life of Mary Anning who lived from 1799 to 1847 and was the first person who discovered dinosaur bones.
And this was on my wishlist, so my son bought it for me. It was just as nice as I had hoped.
A thorough account of the life of a young girl who would become one of the most important figure in discovering dinosaurs. But, because she was only a woman, she didn't have a lot to say. Even though there were some men who acknowledged her, most of them only used her findings for their won. She didn't really get any recognition. What else is new?
From the back cover:
"Spinster Mary Anning, uneducated and poor, was of the wrong sex, wrong class and wrong religion, but fate decreed that she was exactly the right person in the right place and time to pioneer the emerging science of palaeontology, the study of fossils. Born in Lyme Regis in 1799, Mary learned to collect fossils with her cabinet-maker father. The unstable cliffs and stealthy sea made the task dangerous but after her father died the sale of fossils sustained her family. Mary’s fame started as an infant when she survived a lightning strike that killed the three adults around her. Then, aged twelve, she caught the public’s attention when she unearthed the skeleton of a ‘fish lizard’ or Ichthyosaurus. She later found the first Plesiosaurus giganteus, with its extraordinary long neck associated with the Loch Ness monster, and, dramatically, she unearthed the first, still rare, Dimorphodon macronyx, a frightening ‘flying dragon’ with hand claws and teeth.Yet her many discoveries were announced to the world by male geologists like the irrepressible William Buckland and Sir Henry De La Beche and they often received the credit. In Jurassic Mary Patricia Pierce redresses this imbalance, bringing to life the extraordinary, little-known story of this determined and pioneering woman."
